Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shikhar Dhawan won the toss and opted to bowl first against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, Chandigarh on April 9. Dhawan did not make any changes to the side but gave an update on an injured Liam Livingstone. Dhawan said that Livingstone should be fir for PBKS' next clash against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on April 13.
“We'll bowl first. The wicket will stay the same, so look to restrict them to a low score. We were lucky to have won the last match, it's good that we're not depending on any one player. We've won two games, looking forward to a good run. He's still recovering (on Liam Livingstone), we're playing the same team,” Dhawan said after winning the toss.
Pat Cummins did not make any changes to his side either.
“We would have bowled first as well. Overall happy with the way we've been going, two wins and we could have had one more game going our way. We've got good strength and some depth. Same team as the last game,” Cummins said at the coin toss.
PBKS' new finisher Shashank Singh feels that the wicket will help the batters and predicted a high-scoring game.
“This is a new venue, but this is a good wicket, a flat track, the ball comes nicely onto the bat, the bounce is even and I can say that this is a boundary hitting venue,” Shashank told the broadcasters before the clash.
Meanwhile, former SRH skipper Aiden Markram is happy with his floating batting position to match the team's needs.
“Pretty easy (on his role), happy to float around, do whatever needed, obviously you don't want to waste a guy like Heinrich (Klaasen) too much, so whenever we're in a position to get him early, I'm fine with that for the team,” Markram said.
PBKS Playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
SRH Playing XI: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, Jaydev Unadkat
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